TV Shows

When the Netflix original series Atypical premiered in the summer of 2017, I was skeptical. Too often shows that feature autistic characters perpetuate unhelpful stereotypes or otherwise exploit autism tropes for cheap emotional appeal. However, I was quickly and happily surprised when the mini-series used Sam—the show’s main character—and his autism not to paint him as atypical, but rather to draw out the atypicality of the human condition—particularly the manner in which human beings love (and sometimes fail to love)…